


Burning down the World

by Bythia



Series: Just Write: Trope-Bingo 2020 [14]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Implied/Referenced Character Death, dark Harry Potter (kind of)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:26:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26728162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bythia/pseuds/Bythia
Summary: A little more than twelve years after the war against Voldemort, Great Britain has changed a lot and not at all. Harry, wanted for murder and thought to be the next Dark Lord, is not too pleased with what is happening in this country.
Relationships: Neville Longbottom/Luna Lovegood
Series: Just Write: Trope-Bingo 2020 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897216
Kudos: 54
Collections: Just Write! Trope Bingo





	Burning down the World

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know, there could be a lot more to this story. Don't ask about it. I'm not planning to write anything more for this 'verse at the moment. This is just intended to be a little insight into what could have been.
> 
> Somehow "goblin" has changed into "dverger" for me, with the former being a racist slur. The honour for inventing that concept goes to Keira Marcos and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one whos headcanon was formed by Keira in this one. 
> 
> **Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters or anything of this world. I just borrowed them to play a little bit, and I don't make money with the stories I borrowed them for. But the words are mine, so please don't copy them to use them as your own.
> 
> Have fun,  
> Bythia

Harry sat quietly in the Leeking Cauldron and watched the other customers carefully. He came here often, because the Aurors liked to spent their break here or meet for a drink after their shift and they did not care much for security while talking about their assignments. It was a great place to gather intelligence, though it made him anxious to be in a crowd of people, regardless of the knowledge that no one would recognize him as long as he wore his cloak.

He stiffened when he saw Ron, Hermione and Seamus entering the pub and taking a table at the other side of the room. It was hard to see them, it would be even harder to listen to them, but he silently activated the listening charm he had over that table. It had taken nearly a year of work for him to create the spell work that would allow him to listen to any conversation inside the pub if he was there. He had done the same in a couple of other places all over the country where important persons or those with possibly important information met regularly. Information gathering was the most important part to stay alive at this point in his life.

"I hate this time of the year," Ron muttered darkly after they had given their orders for drink and food. "Mum's devastated and it's still a week to that day."

"I can understand her." Hermione took Ron's hand. "I can't imagine loosing Rose in such a horrific way. And at least she is okay for most of the year now."

Harry grimaced. It had been nine years since Ginny had died and the anger about the things that had been revealed in the days before her death was still burning in him. He had never regretted her death and to see those he had once called his friend mourn for her while condemning him for fighting for his freedom and life brought the fury about the whole situation back every single time. His life had changed drastically on this day nine years ago and while he often regretted not to have the life he had envisioned after his victory over Voldemort, this was better than the life others had planned for him and had been prepared to pressure him into with the help of magic if the need arose.

"There hasn't been a sighting of Potter for over a year now," Seamus said thoughtfully. "You think we have any luck with Dark Lord's for once and he died in some hole?"

Hermione sighed. "We know he is alive because the Potter accounts haven't been shut down. And he has proven again and again that he is not so easily killed. - I still don't know how we could have come to this point. How we missed this change in him."

"I think it was there from the start," Seamus said. "I mean … remember second year when he sent that snake after Justin? I was never very comfortable with him, but … everyone just looked at him as the defeater of Voldemort and no one questioned what could become out of a person with such a power at the age of a toddler."

"And remember fifth and six year, when he was constantly angry and lashing out at everyone?" Ron agreed. "We were told it was his connection with Voldemort, but … how can we be sure he didn't just say it to cover up his own misgivings? We were all young and naive then, and thought we needed him to defeat Voldemort."

"Well, he was good for that," Seamus replied.

"Maybe we should have gotten him help after that." Hermione sighed again. "I'm still so disappointed in him. But maybe we let him down. This last year before Voldemort’s fall was hard and I had thought about bringing him to a mind healer. I wish I had done that. Maybe it could have saved Ginny."

Harry snorted. There had been nothing that could have saved Ginny, expect her forgetting her obsession with him, which would have never happened because barely anyone had seen a problem in it. She had potioned him into compliance with her life plan, had planned to kill his godson so he would not be in the way of her future children and herself inheriting the fortune of the Potter's and the Black's. And when his magic had lashed out in defence of himself and the toddler in his care, they had called him a murderer and her the poor victim of the next Dark Lord.

Ron snorted. "I don't think any help could have come soon enough to prevent Potter from going bonkers."

"He was our friend, Ron," Hermione protested and although she was the most fierce of his adversaries, it felt good to hear her remember their friendship.

"I don't think he ever really was our friend, Mione." Ron shook his head. "We sacrificed so much for him and what did he ever do for us? Every single thing he ever did was for his own benefit. He latched onto us because we were dumb enough to try to help him and he used us the whole time."

Hermione frowned and even at the distance Harry could see her thinking, but she said nothing to contradict the redhead. In the end, she nodded. "You are right, and I know that. I just … it's still hard to accept, you know?"

"Yeah." Ron put an arm around her shoulder and pressed a kiss against her temple. "It won't ever stop being hart. There was a time when I trusted him and he just turned on all of us. It would be nice if we at least knew what he was planning. It was a lot easier when we knew what we were fighting against with Voldemort telling the whole world exactly what he wanted to do."

Seamus snorted. "It's the same thing every one of his sorts wants! Don't you remember how outraged he was about the Ministry putting the Death Eaters and their families in prison? And about the sanctions about the creatures that fought for Voldemort? And he wanted to argue with one single werewolf in the whole country not fighting against us, as if that would prove anything. The only reason Lupin fought for us was that Dumbledore had kept him away from any packs from before he came to Hogwarts. As if there was any hope for any other werewolf turning out all right!"

"He lost his mind along the way," Ron muttered. "And I'm pretty sure the last of it happened in this last fight against Voldemort and the only reason he was able to hide it for more than three years was that we were all kind of broken after that. But really … taking in Lupin's son and arguing for the Death Eaters and arguing against the new laws to protect and better integrate muggle borne children into the magical, we should have seen it coming."

"He wasn't the only one making those arguments," Hermione reminded them. "Neville hadn't lost his mind and he was still not happy with those laws. But then, I don't think he ever really understood what muggle borns were going through, not only during the year at school but also at home. Harry should have understood the need for it! They have a better life than any of us ever had since we integrate them into magical families as soon as we know about their magic."

Harry frowned because he still could not understand how Hermione could argue this way. They were abducting these children and mind raping their whole families and friends so they would forget that the child had ever existed. Yes, there had to be done something to protect magical children in muggle families and to help them to better integrate into the foreign world of magic, but this was not the right solution.

Seamus huffed. "Didn't do Neville any good to side with Potter, did it? That's something that I still don't understand, you know? Even after Potter had fled, Neville was speaking up for him, trying to defend part of his actions, and Potter goes and kills him!"

Harry sighed. The whole situation with Neville had been unfortunate, but there had been nothing to prevent it because Neville had not wanted to step back and let things go. Harry regretted what had happened to his friend and still felt a lot of guilt over it, but he had learned to live with this guilt. He would not have been able to prevent what had happened to Neville.

Harry started to think that there was nothing to learn on this day for him because he had no interest in listening to those three bitching about their version of his downfall. Maybe he should leave early after finished his pint of butterbeer and spent a little bit of extra time with Teddy.

"It's nothing new, really," Hermione said while shaking her head. "History is permeated with radical elements killing those in influential positions who are supporting at least part of the same agenda those assassins have. Because they don't want to find a peaceful solution and their so-called agenda is only a means for the sole purpose of creating conflict and violence."

"Speaking of Neville and this whole debate about taking in muggle borns into magical families. Last week two, other muggle families with a magical child vanished, in one case even twins," Seamus said and Harry abruptly changes his mind about leaving. "The report landed on my desk earlier today. Again, there is no trace of them, even for the muggle authorities."

Hermione frowned at him. "Did your division check for any signs that they have moved? Maybe even moved out of the country?"

"Of course!" Seamus sounded exaggerated. "We are talking with the neighbours and the other children at school and the extended families, but generally no one knows anything. They just vanished overnight, their houses are emptied, all their monthly obligations are taken care of and have been terminated for the end of the month, but no one left any notice where they would go or why they left."

"You think there is magical intervention involved?"

Seamus crossed his arms. "Yes. Those are all children that would have been taken into the magical world in the next couple of month, they were already known to the Ministry and preparations were made. The single child should have been exchanged against a squib of the same age. It's a disaster because it will be hart to keep it quiet this time. The family of the squib already knew of the pending exchange and they were preparing for it. Now we need to find another solution for the squib."

"Is it always those who are already known to the Ministry?" Hermione questioned.

Seamus shrugged. "How should we know? If we don't know that they have magical children before they vanish, we never learn about them."

"Maybe you should look at other cases of whole families gone missing in the muggle world and search for signs of magical children there. Because if it's only those the Ministry already knows about, we may have a problem in the Child Protection Division. Someone in there has to relay the information about those families to the perpetrator."

"Why would someone abduct whole families?" Ron asked.

"We don't know if the whole family is abducted," Hermione replied condescendingly. "All of them could be dead."

Seamus shook the head. "The children are still alive. They are registered with the Ministry and Hogwarts, there would be a note in the list if they were dead."

"But that's only for the magical children, right? The rest of their family could be dead and we wouldn't know anything about it," Hermione said.

Seamus nodded.

"Why go to all the effort to make it look like the family left on their own accord then? They could kill the parents and the other children and leave their bodies there," Ron said.

Hermione shook her head. "But that would garner a lot more attention. The muggle police won't do much if it looks like the family left on their own accord. A whole family dead with just one or two of their children missing would lead to a massive search and investigation. - We haven't caught on to it until a couple of months ago and it's what, like the thirties family or something that has vanished in the last five years?"

"Thirty-second and thirty-third," Seamus agreed. "And ten of those happened in the last year. I think it's that number that tipped the Child Protection Division off finally."

"That's a lot of missing children and presumably dead people," Ron muttered visibly shocked. "Which age group?"

"Anything between two and eleven at the point of their abduction," Seamus answered. "They had all shown great magical potential already, which was the reason why they should have been taken out of their families."

"This is so awful," Hermione muttered.

"It has to be a group if all those children are alive," Ron said. "Who would want to abduct so many children? And why?"

They fell silent for a long while, before Hermione finally muttered, "To train them."

"What?"

"Keep them isolated from the world, tell them all kinds of horrible things about the rest of the world and train them to fight, and you have your own small army who is devoted to you because they don't know anything else." Hermione had gone pale and was staring at the table. "I … When Harry and I were alone in that year … we once talked about child soldiers and Harry said Dumbledore had raised him to be exactly that, and that every little thing in his life had been arranged so that he would reach a point where he would be prepared to kill in his fight against Voldemort."

"Bullshit!" Ron raged.

Hermione nodded. "I told him the same and I thought he was just tired. Dumbledore tried to protect him from his fate for so long."

"You think this could be Potter?" Seamus asked aghast.

"Yes." Hermione shuddered. "He knew a lot about the topic and said he had seen a documentary with his cousin about it in the summer after sixth year. But something was off when we talked about it." She buried her face in her hands. "Oh Merlin, I can't … How could we miss this darkness in him?"

"But where could he hide them?" Seamus asked. "All his properties were confiscated by the Ministry! He has nowhere to go!"

"The goblins aren't giving the Ministry access to his accounts, are they? He could have bought something new," Ron said darkly.

"And warded it against detection of underage magic? He would have needed help for that," Seamus replied sceptically.

"We have no idea who is supporting him," Ron replied. "He could have even let the goblins ward it. I wouldn't put it past them to help him. They were awfully rash in forgiving him for his break-in, the fee they asked of him was laughable."

Harry snorted because Ron and Hermione had been there when he had told the dverger the reason for their break-in and that they had help from one of their own until Griphook had betrayed them. They had been horrified about the fact that there had been a Horcrux in one of their vaults for probably more than two decades. But the knowledge about the Horcruxes was sealed under an unbreakable vow and therefore neither Ron nor Hermione could talk about the reason for the dverger's rash forgiveness for their break-in.

Hermione shook her head. "They remained neutral the last time we had a Dark Lord. They don't care for the conflict of humans."

Ron snorted. "That's what they have told us, doesn't mean it's true. - You should try to get into his accounts again, Seamus. Now, with the suspicion that he is involved in the abduction of so many magical children, there should be something so that they won't have a choice but to let you in!"

Harry frowned and started to write a note of warning for the bank. There was no legal way for anyone from the Ministry to gain access to any information about his account, but that did not mean that they would step away from taking the dverger by surprise. With the way the Ministry worked, it could very well be that in the next couple of days there would be an announcement about him killing more than thirty muggle families to abduct their magical children, even so, there was no proof at all that those families were dead.

"Great." Seamus huffed. "Now I'll have to return to work instead of going home. - I know it's not in your actual job description, Hermione, but maybe you could gather information about those child soldiers that you talked about with Potter? You know more about research in the muggle world than anyone in my division."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, of course. … We'll need to dig into everything we know about Harry, because … we need to know what he is preparing those children for! And we need to find a way to protect other children!"

"Okay, guys, let's stop this conversation for now, yeah?" Ron demanded when they were finally served their meals. "I really don't want to talk about Potter or his crimes while eating!"

Harry snorted and stood up to leave as their conversation turned to less interesting topics. He had not learned as much as he had hoped in the turn of this afternoon, but to learn about Seamus investigation was important information. It was good to know how much, or little as the case was, the Ministry actually knew about this part of his plans. He was indeed responsible for those families disappearing and though Hermione's conclusion was no surprise at all, it still hurt that she thought him capable of such crimes.

  
  


"Daddy!"

Harry braced himself when Teddy came running to him and jumped at him, wrapping his arms and legs around him like he had done since he had been a toddler. He was twelve, nearly thirteen now and Harry had thought long ago he would stop with it sometime, but he had no such luck. Soon Teddy would be as tall as him and would probably grow even taller and Harry hoped his son would at least stop as soon as that happened.

"Where have you been?" Teddy asked scornfully. "The baby is coming right now and you weren't there!"

Harry chuckled. "I had to do a couple of things. How is Aunt Luna?"

"No idea." Teddy dropped down again, grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him through the house. "Uncle Nev and I were not allowed into her room, because we would be nuisances."

Harry followed his son laughing. "I won't be allowed in the room either. So, there is really nothing I've missed then."

"But it won't take long anymore now! And you have to be there when we can see the baby! And Uncle Nev is a nervous wreck! I have never seen him so out of it!"

"It's his first child," Harry replied chuckling. "Of course he is nervous. I'll remind you of this when your first child his born!"

Teddy screwed up his face. "Don't be gross, Daddy!"

"Take all the time you want for that!" Harry agreed. "I really don't need to be a grandfather before I'm at least fifty!"

They reached the part of the castle that Luna and Neville had made into their home, and Harry stopped in the door watching Neville walk up and down the whole length of their living room, while Teddy let himself drop onto the sofa with a put upon sigh.

"It will alright," Harry said grinning.

Neville turned to him, but whatever he had wanted to say died on his lips when he saw Harry. "What happened?"

Harry shook his head. "I'll tell you later. It's nothing urgent."

"You heard something on your little reconnaissance tour," Neville said. "Just tell us. I can't be worried about my wife and you at the same time!"

"It's really…" Harry sighed. "I saw Ron, Hermione and Seamus. And I listened to them for a little while. At first, it was just … It will be ten years next week that Ginny died and they were talking about how they could have missed it that I went dark. Oh, and they were pitying you for first supporting me and then getting killed by me."

Neville snorted and Teddy chuckled. There was not much they kept from Teddy, partly because of the experiences in Harry's own childhood, but also because the first couple of years of his life had been hart and it would be easier for Teddy to know what his adopted father did if there came ever the day on which Harry would not be able to come back home.

Life had been so hart for Teddy when Harry had lived with Ginny, but at that point, Harry had not known it and not been able to recognize it for what it was because of the foreign magic controlling him. Most of it he had learned in the month after Ginny's death when he had been on the run with a child of not even four years. He tried to give Teddy as much of a childhood as he could, but they had to live with the reality that Harry was a wanted criminal for most of his life.

"I'm really glad I don't have to live in this backwater country, Daddy."

Harry smiled sadly. "I still wish sometimes you could be able to go to Hogwarts."

Teddy screwed up his face. "I would hate to go to a boarding school! I wouldn't be able to see you for months on end! And I wouldn't be able to see the baby! This will be the next best thing to a sibling I'll ever get, you know!"

Harry raised his eyebrows. "I could still adopt other children."

"But you won't," Teddy said quietly. "Because you won't risk leaving another person behind if you are caught someday."

"I won't be caught!" Harry sat down beside him and hugged him tightly. "I promise I'll find a way to come home to you, even if it will take a little while, okay?"

"You can't promise that," Teddy muttered.

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve no one knows about," Harry reminded him. "You know that no one will recognize me as long as I have my cloak. And you are the only person who can take it away from me. We have tested this repeatedly!"

Even twelve years after gathering and uniting the Hallows, Harry was not sure what the meaning of being the Master of Death was exactly, but he had learned a lot about the Invisibility Cloak and the Elder Wand. The stone was securely hidden away and Harry had only once touched it after gathering it back from the forest where he had let it drop before facing Voldemort.

The cloak had turned out to be much more useful than he had expected because it could not only make him invisible, he could also take on the appearance of anyone he had ever seen and the only person to be able to take it from his shoulders as long as he wore it was Teddy as his heir and no magic could detect his appearance to be false.

"Couldn't you just stay here?" Teddy asked. "I don't understand why you have to leave so often! Why does it matter what is happening on the other side of the world?"

"Because even what happens on the other side of the world could affect us some time," Harry muttered. "And I want you to grow up into a world where you won't have to fear to be persecuted for what your birth father was. I want all those other children to be safe without their families having to leave their home and friends. If we just let bad people do what they please, the world will turn into something we don't want to live in. We need to protect our freedom and the freedom of those who can't protect themselves yet."

"I hate to be worried about you all the time!"

"I know." Harry pressed a kiss in his hair.

"So, they were bemoaning my supposed naivety, because they still don't see that I left England of my own free will. But that wouldn't have you look like a ghost."

Harry sighed. "They finally caught on to our little scheme. Although, they have only found those missing families in which they already knew about the magical children. And they…" He looked down at his son, but it would only make him suspicious if he tried to keep from him what he was suspected of. "They came to the grand conclusion that I was killing the muggles and abducting the children to create an army of brainwashed child soldiers."

Neville snorted. "Not the first time they accused you of murder when they can't even be sure the alleged victim is dead. Look at me!"

"But this is another scale," Harry said dejectedly. "They have found thirty-three families missing."

Neville laughed. "Merlin, they have missed a lot!"

Harry shrugged. "They'll find most of the rest now that they are starting to look. I mean, it was never the plan to keep it hidden, just to get those families into a new life outside of Britain before their children could be abducted. - They'll prepare for war, now that they think I'm building an army."

"You are building an army," Neville reminded. "Although, not out of these children, even so, I think there will be a couple of them who will gladly join our cause as soon as they are old enough."

"I'll join," Teddy muttered. "My birth parents died for those idiots and they are just making all the same mistakes again!"

"Not before you have got at least one mastery!" Harry reminded him. 

There was no chance he would let his son participate in a war before he was not at least in his mid-twenties and had learned what it meant to live. He still had hope that he could end all of this before Teddy was old enough, but this hope was slowly dying. For nine years they had already tried to get Harry a fair trial, to stop the laws in a legal way that were fracturing the magical society in Britain more and more, but to no avail. Those who were persecuted by the new laws were to tired and beaten down to fight again and had started to leave Britain en mass and Harry could understand them. He had done the same, although mainly to protect Teddy.

Teddy rolled his eyes. "I know."

It had not started as them building an army, Harry had only tried to help as many people as he could who were not able for one reason or another to leave Britain on their own or at all. At that time, he had already been tried and sentenced in absentia for the murder of Ginny, but there were a lot of people doubting this whole process, especially those who were persecuted themselves for being dark or associated with anything dark. They had started to form an underground movement to fight for their freedom and without Harry noticing he had been slotted into the role of their leader.

"I worry about those families," Harry said to Neville. "I mean, at the moment they think they are dead, but if they ever start to look for them outside of Britain, it won't be hard to find them."

"They are protected by their new governments and these governments know what is happening in Great Britain with families of muggle born children. I think the ICW is preparing an inquiry into the whole situation," Neville replied.

Harry frowned. "They haven't done anything like that in the last twenty years, all through Voldemorts rise and reign, or throughout the whole aftermath!"

"But then there was still the very present influence of Dumbledore in the ICW. He kept them out of Great Britain for the whole time he was part of that panel, even when he was not yet the Head Mugwump. In the last two or three years have come in a lot of new representatives for many countries, it's barely anyone left who was there when Dumbledore was there. I think the last of his international influence is finally dying and that means Britain isn't protected anymore from not following the rules of the ICW."

"Do you think that is the reason why my appeal to them about my trail didn't lead to anything?" After what had happened first to Sirius and later to a lot of relatives of Death Eaters after Voldemort had been defeated, Harry had not been surprised that the case against him had come in front of the Wizengamot without his presence. He had tried to protest against it in front of the ICW which had lead to him nearly being extradited to Great Britain.

Neville nodded. "And not only your case but everything we have gathered in the last decade. It could be a chance to stop all these things without falling back in an open rebellion. I'm not sure if a third civil war in such a short time would leave anything to save."

Harry huffed. "Maybe it's the only way, to burn everything down and built up an entirely new society afterwards."

Neville sighed. "I really don't like these kinds of thoughts."

"But you do see this possibility as well, don't you?"

"Yeah."

Before they could immerse themselves in this topic, the door to the bedroom opened and Teddy was the first one up to run into the room. Harry laughed about Neville's indignant face and let the new father step first into the room that held his wife and new born child. Teddy was staring open-mouthed at the crying little girl in Luna's arms, Neville sat down on the edge of the bed beside her with the kind of bright smile that had become so very rare in the last years, and for a moment Harry could forget all about what had become of the country he had once died for.

  
  


Later in the evening, after Teddy, Luna and little Lily Alice Longbottom were already asleep, Neville and Harry sat outside on the terrace, under a warming charm and both sipping on tea.

"You named your daughter after my mother," Harry mutter, still unable to believe it.

Neville smiled. "Of course, she was my godmother after all. You and me, we should have grown up as brothers. I still resent Dumbledore as well as my grandmother that it didn't happen this way."

"It's not really her fault."

"She didn't even try to get custody of you!" Neville said agitatedly. "She wasn't prepared to take in another child. She told me once she was overwhelmed with taking care of me and I guess … that was evident in every single decision she made during my childhood, but still…"

"It was hart for her. And she has gotten her act together in the end."

Augusta Longbottom lived still in Britain and sent them information about the things that were happening publicly as well as behind closed doors in the Ministry. With Neville presumed dead she had taken on the Longbottom seat in the Wizengamot and was trying to gain political power on their behalf. It had not been very successful up until now, because her stand on a lot of things was not very popular.

"Last time I spoke with her she questioned if it was the right time for a child of my own´," Neville muttered. "She is still trying to meddle."

Harry eyed his friend thoughtful. "To tell the truth, I have thought the same. We never talked about it, but I'm pretty sure Lily was no accident and I have no idea how you and Luna can bring a child into this situation."

"Luna wants to see our children grow up and for them to be old enough to have good memories of her when she finally…" Neville took a deep breath. "Her gift has started to get stronger. There will come a day when it will take over her whole life. She won't be the woman I married anymore when this happens."

Harry closed his eyes to hold back his tears. He knew all about Luna's gifts as a seer, but it had taken him a long time to understand what it would mean for her. She had gotten small glimpses into the future of the people around her for all of her life and as a child, it had been hart for her to keep this knowledge to herself. There would come a day when she would be taken over by her gifts and lose herself in the sight of the future. She would turn into an Oracle and they would lose her as their friend.

"She has seen it happen?"

Neville nodded. "She has thirty years at the most, maybe as less as twenty. And she wants to have two more children."

"Sometimes I wish we could take this so-called gift from her."

"She wouldn't thank you for trying such a thing," Neville replied. "She is convinced that it is her destiny and that she has to meet this destiny. I vowed that I would take care of her when the time comes."

Harry sighed. "I just hate to know that we'll lose her and that we can do nothing about it."

"I know. Me too."

"Still, I can't believe you named your daughter after my mother!"

Neville chuckled. "We are family. But I promise, if there is a boy in our future, we won't name him Harry nor James."

"You better not!", Harry agreed. "Name him after your father. Better not after Luna's father."

Neville snorted. "I'm very glad that Luna agrees in that one!"

"Have you heard anything from him?"

"He has vanished and Luna doesn't think we will ever hear from him again, though she is convinced he is still alive. That's somewhat comforting, I guess."

"I'm really sorry you have to live here, in hiding with me. It's not a good place for any child to grow up."

"We are not really in hiding, are we?" Neville replied. "Teddy can go to school and he has a lot of friends. Lily won't be isolated either, nor will her siblings. We have found a new home here and I'm not sure I would want to go back to Great Britain even if we can end the insanity that's happening there. Sometimes I wonder the same thing Teddy asked earlier, you know?"

Harry nodded slowly. "Yes. I think about it, too, sometimes. But … I'm just unable to step back and not help those who are persecuted without a just cause. Innocent people are sitting in Askaban and all I can think about is what that place did to Sirius. And the families that we help escape shouldn't have to make this decision to flee or lose every memory of ever having a child."

"What will we do if the ICW stepping in won't help?" Neville asked. "Would you really be prepared to burn the whole country down?"

Harry shrugged. "Yeah. Even if the ICW steps in it might be the only way to find a permanent solution, although this 'burning down' could maybe happen without an actual fight in this case. Blood purity and the isolationism are so ingrained into the society in Great Britain and the laws, that I can't see how we could get rid of all of it without starting from scratch and forgetting all about the old laws. It will be a lot less time consuming to just create a whole set of new law books instead of rooting out all the problems in the existing laws."

"They are already calling you a Dark Lord, that won't change with this kind of plans, even if we succeed with it."

Harry smiled slightly because despite arguing with him about these plans, Neville would not step back and stop supporting him. He had found in Luna and Neville support he had never known from anyone else and sometime in the last few years they had formed an unorthodox family unit. They had been co-parenting Teddy for years now and Harry knew without asking that they would do the same with Lily because Teddy was right, she was his sister even without any kind of blood connection between them.

"They wanted me to be their next Dark Lord from the very beginning", Harry said uncaring. "After all that they have done to me, after what they would have done to Teddy if we had stayed there, I have no problem taking on this role. Especially if it's the only way to bring any kind of change into this damn country."

"We'll be at your side whatever you do. But you do need to have an actual plan, you know. You have spent the last eight years gathering support around you, by giving them shelter or helping them to leave the country. There are a lot of people ready to fight at your side and they are waiting for you to announce a plan to step out of the shadows."

Harry frowned. "Not many were prepared to fight when I first spoke with them."

"Because they had no one they trusted to follow in such a fight," Neville replied. "They have learned to trust you in the last few years because you accepted their decisions then and helped them to find a safe place despite that. But a lot of them are tired of living in hiding. They have started to prepare for war long ago, they are just waiting for you to lead them."

Harry sighed. "You know, one day you'll have to tell your daughter that it was the very day of her birth that we decided to go to war with Great Britain."

"And she will be proud," Neville muttered. "Luna saw our grandchildren go to Hogwarts, a much change Hogwarts in a time of peace and unity."

"And are you sure that was not just a dream?"

Neville laughed. "Yes. - I believe we are on the right path."

"So, we'll let the ICW descent onto Great Britain and take care of the rest after they are finished? Throw over the Ministry and get rid of all the old laws."

Neville grinned. "We will have to refine that plan a little bit."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I was never good with making plans. That's what a Dark Lord has minions for, isn't it?"

Neville laughed. "So, I am your minion now?"

"Nah." Harry shook his head grinning. "You are my right-hand man, of course!"

"We'll start to make plans in a couple of days. And we should start with meeting the others, we should know what their wishes for the future are before we start to make any plans."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. This was not how he had envisioned his life to be when he had dared to think about a future in his years in Hogwarts. He had not planned on Teddy, he had not planned to live on the other side of the world while still having to fight for justice in Great Britain even after the defeat of Voldemort, and he had not planned to drag Neville and Luna down with him when all of this had started after Ginny's death.

But he was happy. Somehow he had been able to find satisfaction in this life he had built with Luna and Neville despite being stuck in a situation where he could just not stop to fight. And he had learned that he could trust Neville and Luna, even after everyone else had betrayed him. Whatever the future may hold, he had found his family and that was everything he had ever dreamed about as a child.

** The End **

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for the "Found Family" square of my Bingo Card.


End file.
